Ponce
de Leon, JUAN, discoverer of
Florida;
born in San Servas, Spain, in 1460; was a distinguished cavalier in
the wars with the Moors in Granada. Accompanying
Columbus on his second
voyage, Ponce was made commander of a portion of Santo Domingo, and
in 1509 he conquered and was made governor of Porto Rico, where he
amassed a large fortune. There he was told of a fountain of youth -
a fountain whose waters would restore youth to the aged. It was
situated in one of the Bahama Islands, surrounded by magnificent
trees, and the air was laden with the delicious perfumes of flowers;
the trees bearing golden fruit that was plucked by beautiful
maidens, who presented it to strangers. It was the old story of the
Garden of the Hesperides, and inclination, prompted by his
credulity, made Ponce go in search of the miraculous fountain, for
his hair was white and his face was wrinkled with age. He sailed
north from Porto Rico in March, 1513, and searched for the wonderful
spring among the Bahama Islands, drinking and bathing in the waters
of every fountain that fell in his way. But he experienced no
change, saw no magnificent trees with golden fruit plucked by
beautiful maidens, and, disappointed but not disheartened, he sailed
towards the northwest until westerly winds came laden with the
perfumes of sweet flowers. Then he landed, and in the imperial
magnolia-trees, laden with fragrant blossoms, he thought he beheld
the introduction to the paradise he was seeking.

It was on the morning of Easter Sunday when he
landed on the site of the present
St. Augustine, in
Florida, and he took possession of the country in the name of the
Spanish monarch. Because of its wealth of flowers, or because of the
holy day when he first saw the land (Pascua de Flores), he gave the
name of Florida to the great island (as he supposed) he had
discovered. There he sought the fountain of youth in vain Sailing
along the coast southward, he discovered and named the Tortugas
(Turtle) islands. At another group he found a single inhabitant - a
wrinkled old Indian woman - not one of the beautiful maidens he
expected to find. Abandoning the search himself, but leaving one of
his vessels to continue it, he returned to Porto Rico a wiser and an
older man, but bearing the honor of discovering an important portion
of the continent of America. In 1514 Ponce returned to Spain and
received permission from Ferdinand to colonize the "Island of
Florida," and was appointed its governor; but he did not proceed to
take possession until 1521, having in the mean time conducted an
unsuccessful expedition against the Caribs. On going to
Florida with two ships and
many followers, he met the determined hostilities of the natives,
and after a sharp conflict he was driven back to his ships mortally
wounded, and died in Cuba in July, 1521. Upon his tomb was placed
this inscription: "In this Sepulchre rest the Bones of a Man who was
Leon by Name and still more by Nature."